


zone of truth or dare

by a0q3e



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, post ep89
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:13:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22163863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a0q3e/pseuds/a0q3e
Summary: the party plays truth or dare... briefly. certain truths reveal themselves afterward.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett
Comments: 5
Kudos: 204





	zone of truth or dare

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this at 2am

The Mighty Nein were mighty exhausted - and sore, definitely sore. After a few chaotic days of cross-continent travel, traumatizing battles, and a _lot_ of diplomacy, they were due for a break. So, they relaxed as best as they could: in their hot tub on the lower floor of their house in Xhorhas. 

Jester was tucked between Caduceus and Yasha. _God, it was nice to have Yasha back_. And going around the circle from Yasha, Caleb, Nott (who was technically sitting outside with one tentative foot in), Beau, and Fjord. Somewhere, a bottle of alcohol was making its way around. Jester and Caduceus were the only two who abstained and despite being in a literal hot tub, Caduceus still had a cup of tea in one hand. 

As tired, mildly inebriated conversations took place, Jester decided she needed to liven the atmosphere. Yes, they almost died, hell, Jester herself nearly died, but their somber faces were too depressing for her. They were finally home and Yasha was back and they needed to celebrate. 

“Hey! We should play a game!” She declared, splashing the water for emphasis. 

“A game? This isn’t exactly the place for poker if that’s what you’re thinking,” Fjord said.

Jester shook her head. “No, silly. We should play like, some sort of party game or something.”

Caleb, whose entire body was submerged up to his chin, chimed in. 

“As someone who is always down for a good party game, what do you suggest?”

Jester beamed. Then she thought about it. She had only planned to get this far. 

“We could play Never Have I Ever,” Beau proposed, shooting a smirk Jester’s way. 

Jester blushed knowing Beau would lose that game in a heartbeat and feel no shame about it. 

“No, it has to be something where everyone has an equal shot… something like Truth or Dare!”

“No, no, no,” said Nott. “The truth cannot be guaranteed, especially if someone as charismatic as Caleb is in the game.”

Caleb’s cheeks flushed.

More inspiration sparked in Jester’s mind. “I could cast Zone of Truth. That way, the answers we get will be absolutely true and if you don’t want to answer-” she looked pointedly at Caleb, “you don’t have to.”

The group thought about it for a second. 

“I’m in,” said Yasha. 

Jester grinned. “See? Yasha wants to play. It’s gonna be so much fun!”

Fjord sighed before saying he’d join the game as well. 

“I don’t really know what this is about, but if it’s team bonding, I’m into it,” Caduceus murmured. 

“I’m in too, but I better get some good dares,” Beau said. “None of that weak shit, alright?” 

“I’ve got no secrets, so sure. Also, I’m with Beau on the no weak shit—I’m talking to you, Fjord,” Nott said.

Fjord shook his head at her. “Just you wait, Nott.” He then made the motion of drawing his thumb across his throat to which Nott bared her teeth. 

Everyone’s eyes fell on Caleb.

“Well, I guess I am in this too.”

Jester squealed and clapped her hands together. “This is gonna be amazing.” She then closed her eyes and willed the old familiar spell to flow through her. 

“Now, you have to let the spell take effect of else I will know you are cheating,” Jester instructed. 

“Now, hold on,” Beau said, “since the spell isn’t being cast on you, how will we know that _you’ll_ be telling the truth?”

“You can clock her with those Cobalt fists of yours,” Nott yelled. “Let’s get this game started! I dare Fjord to give us a twirl!”

Fjord’s blushed that yellow-green color. “Really, Nott? That’s your dare?”

“I said what I said, sailor boy.”

Fjord gave a nervous chuckle and looked at Jester, hoping she would rule against the dare. Jester turned away bashfully. 

Fjord groaned, stood, turned, and then plopped back down, making as big of a splash as he could. 

Nott clapped. “See? Was it that difficult?”

Fjord rolled his eyes. He then shifted his glance to Caduceus. “Caduceus, I know you’re a holy man but for the love of Melora herself, let us hear you say some bad words.”

Nott, Beau, and Caleb booed from the other side of the tub. 

“Weak shit, Tusktooth!” Nott yelled. 

Caduceus furrowed his brow. “Bad words? Are any words bad? How could any word be bad? Every word is just a way of communication. I don’t-”

“Say ‘fuck,’” Beau called out. 

“Or sheiße if you prefer, Mr. Clay.”

“Or shit! Say shit!” Jester chimed in.

Caduceus seemed overwhelmed by the barrage of words. “I don’t quite—I’m not sure what-”

“Fjord,” Jester said, resting a hand on Caduceus’ large arm. “It’s not fair to break Caduceus.”

“What?” Fjord shrieked. “You all were yelling words, I merely-”

“Game foul!” Nott yelled. “Fjord should be disqualified on account of he broke Caduceus!”

Jester waved her hand at Nott, her other hand still soothing Caduceus. 

“No one is disqualified. Let’s just restart, okay? Caleb, why don’t you go?”

Caleb looked around. His eyes landed on Yasha. “Truth, how does it feel to be back in Xhorhas after… everything?”

The mood in the room got heavy once again and Jester regretted asking Caleb to go. 

“It is, uh, it is nice to be back with you all. I am glad to be… you know… _me_.”

Caleb nodded. “I am glad you are back.”

“Thank you, Caleb.”

Yasha then took a glance around the circle. She stole a look at Beau before whispering to Jester-

“So we just ask whatever we want?”

Jester nodded. “Ask for the truth, or dare them to do something.”

Yasha looked back at Beau. “Do you forgive me?”

Beau chewed on her lip for a moment. “Yeah, I do.”

“Even though I nearly killed you?”

“It wasn’t you who was in control, I know that. Plus, Jester—or her duplicate at least, was there to heal me. Both her and Caduceus. It’s all good now.”

Yasha nodded but Jester could see from the corner of her eye that her barbarian friend was still conflicted over the answer. 

Beau took awhile. She seemed to look at everyone in the circle except for Jester before Nott nudged her, urging her to hurry up already.

“Uhh, okay, Jes, you haven’t gone yet,” she said, seemingly apprehensive. “I guess I dare you to uh, I dunno… sing a song?”

“Weak shit” Fjord muttered under his breath.

Nott stared daggers at him. 

Jester blushed which was odd given that she was always singing absentmindedly. Maybe it was because of all the things Beau could have asked her to do, she asked her to _sing_ . Maybe it was because it was _Beau_ asking.

“Uh, okay, Beau. I don’t know why you’d ask, you hear it all the time, but here goes…”

Jester proceeded to sing an old tune her mother used to sing to her, but Jester sang it in a sort of off-key way, not truly wanting to give it her all with everyone watching closely. Still, it earned her some claps and Jester couldn’t help but catch the way Beau quickly turned away when their eyes met at the end of the song. 

“Okay, my turn. Nott, I dare you do not drink for the rest of the night.”

Nott gasped and Fjord chuckled. 

“But… but what is the point of a party game without the party?” Nott asked, her wide yellow eyes pleading. 

Jester shook her head. “Unless you want to be disqualified from the game, you will abide.”

Fjord reached over and squeezed Jester’s shoulder. “Power move. Amazing,” he said.

Nott slouched over and glared at Fjord. “Beau, Caleb, we need to gang up on them,” she whispered out of the side of her mouth.

“You understand that this game doesn’t work like that, right?” Caleb asked.

“Every game is a competition that I refuse to lose. You’re with me on this right, Beau?”

“Uh-huh. Sure? I’ve never played it that way but I also never played with any of you, so… I guess?”

Nott groaned. “Alright, _Beauregard,_ besides myself of course, who is your favorite member of the party?”

The foot Nott had been dangling in the water immediately recoiled. “Ow, fuck! Foul on Beau! She attacked me, and from the water! Why would you subject me to such trauma, Beauregard?”

Jester slapped the water. “Nott, can you just play and stop trying to get people out?” 

Nott cradled her foot. “Fine, as long as Beau still answers the question.”

She wouldn’t admit it, but Jester wanted to hear the answer too.

Beau gave a nervous laugh. “I mean… Jester’s my best friend so... “

“That isn’t an answer, Beau,” Nott said.

There was a flash of violent intent in Beau’s eyes and then it was gone. 

“Jester is my favorite member of the party. Sorry to everyone else,” Beau said through gritted teeth. 

“That’s all you had to say,” Nott whispered. 

Beau once again glared at Nott. She then looked at Jester who was smiling back. 

“I’m sorry, Jes. I think I’m done with Truth or Dare.” 

Beau then rose from the water, grabbed a towel, and headed towards the stairs. 

“No, Beau, we haven’t even done two rounds yet! Please come back!” Jester yelled after her. 

Beau was already out of sight. 

Caleb leaned over to Nott. “Did you do that?”

Nott shrugged and pulled out her flask. “If the game is over, Mama can drink now!”

Caleb rose slightly from the water, grabbing Nott’s hand, the one with the flask in it. “Go fix it, please.”

Nott groaned and then scampered up the stairs after Beau. 

Caleb and Fjord both took Nott’s exit as an excuse to get out of the hot tub.

“No, wait! The spell only has a little bit of time left,” Jester entreated. “We can still play!”

Caduceus put his hand on Jester’s shoulder as he too rose from the tub. “I think everyone’s a little tired, Miss Jester. It might be better to let everyone get some rest.”

Jester turned to Yasha, the only one still in the hot tub with her. She could feel tears tugging at her eyes but she tried to keep them at bay.

“Yasha?”

“I will stay here with you if you want,” the barbarian said.

Jester could hear it, even in a voice as soft-spoken and lovely as Yasha’s… the _pity_. Jester wasn’t a stranger to it.

“No,” Jester said, her voice small as the boys made their way upstairs. “Thank you, Yasha, but, it’s okay.” 

She and Yasha exited the hot tub, wrapping themselves in towels. As Yasha neared the stairs, she turned back to Jester.

“I know it uh, it may not mean much, but you are my favorite too,” she said with a small smile. 

Jester returned the smile and watched as Yasha ascended the stairs. Jester stood there alone in their basement, her body beginning to get cold as she dried off. A little sensation in the back of her brain told her that the spell had run out. It was all she could do but stifle a cry. 

/

Beau marched quickly to her room in the Xhorhaus before deciding against it. She didn’t really feel like facing Jester after bailing on her game. She trudged to another room that was more appropriate to the way she was feeling, their war room. 

Not long after, a not-so-stealthy goblin tumbled in. She looked apologetic, but Beau knew that Nott could turn that face on without regard for whether it reflected the truth. 

“Beau, I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable, I was just-”

“ _Uncomfortable_ , Nott? Is that what you think you did? You just made me _uncomfortable_ like the way it feels to be riding a horse for too long? You said you wouldn’t fucking do anything! What the fuck happened to that?”

Nott held up her hands in surrender. “I’m just a bit drunk right now, alright? I can’t be blamed for all of my actions. I am really, really sorry though.”

Beau wanted to clobber her. Instead, she paced back and forth trying to calm down. 

“You fucked up, Nott. I don’t give a shit if you’re drunk. I told you something that was very-” Her voice got caught in her throat. “I just don’t want things to change, okay?”

Nott slowly approached her, wary of how quick Beau could lunge if she wanted to. 

“Shits already been getting real serious out there,” Beau continued, pointing her thumb behind her in reference to their world. “I just want this, our group, to be okay. I don’t care if it fucking sucks for me. I’ll get over it.”

Nott closed the gap between them and reached for Beau’s hands. The monk stopped in her tracks. Nott gave a small tug and Beau reluctantly knelt so they were eye level. 

“If that is what you truly want, I will try to respect that,” Nott said. “Really, I will. No more drunk prodding and poking… none of that.”

Beau cocked an eyebrow at her. “Why do I sense a ‘but’?”

“But, as Caduceus has continued to preach, the truth is the best way forward.”

Beau almost laughed. “Nott, you’re a liar and a cheat and you’re telling _me_ to tell the truth?”

“I may be a liar and a cheat, something many of us have in common, I might add, but think about what you know about me, Beau. You know my true name, you know my husband, you know my _son_. You know why I’m like this,” she said, gesturing down at her body, “and why I’m afraid of water.”

“Yeah, but-”

“You know how I felt about our boy Caleb—how I feel about him now. And I may be a drunkard who is still afraid and unsure of a lot of things, but at least I’m honest about it.”

Beau opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. 

Nott brushed a strand of hair that had fallen into Beau’s face as a mother would do. 

“You love Jester. I love her too. You don’t want things to change. I don’t want them to change either… All I will say is that you shouldn’t torture yourself over this, Beau. If you love her, you love her. Don’t be like Caleb and accidentally burn those you love.” 

Beau almost laughed. “That’s fucked up. Even for you.”

Nott shrugged. “Fire metaphors were around a long time before Caleb incinerated his parents.”

“You’re still fucked up.”

Nott grinned, showcasing her jagged teeth. “I know.”

//

When Beau parted ways with Nott, she checked the hot tub only to find it devoid of any people and slowly draining of water. When she went back to her and Jester’s room, she almost thought Jester wasn’t there until she looked past their room towards their balcony. 

Beau took a deep breath and made her way over. 

“Jes?”

The tiefling shrieked before immediately covering her mouth with her hand after realizing who it was. 

“Gods, Beau! Don’t sneak up on people like that!”

Beau’s face went red. She didn’t mean to be stealthy. She went to stand at the railing beside Jester. Even with a quick glance, she could see Jester had been crying. 

“I’m really sorry, Jester. Not just for the scare or for leaving the game but…” 

Once again, the words struggled to escape her. 

“It’s okay, Beau. I don’t think anyone really liked the game… except for Nott, maybe, but-”

“No, Jester, this is about more than the game.”

Jester looked up at her. Beau felt her heart sink at the sight of her. There were tears in Jester’s eyes just waiting to fall. 

“This is about making you feel like I was avoiding you and about… not telling the entire truth. Like, I never really _lied_ to you… but, I guess wasn’t entirely honest about some things.”

Beau looked out at the city. She couldn’t keep looking at those sad, violet eyes, especially when she was trying to say something she had shoved down for so long.

“I… like you, Jester.”

_Fuck_. Beau kept her eyes trained on the horizon.

“And I’m not saying that because I am expecting anything, in fact, I’m hoping I’m not fucking over the entire group as I say this, I just…”

Beau could feel her hands gripping tightly to the railing and she tried to make them unclench before she continued. 

“I don’t know, Nott was saying all these stupid things about being honest, which I guess I’ve been trying to do more now but-”

“Beau.”

_Goddamnit. Why did her voice have to sound like that?_ Beau quickly glanced at Jester from her periphery, but she was unreadable.

“You like me?” Jester asked, her voice small. 

Something about the fact that Jester was repeating it back to her, that it wasn’t something that only Beau knew, caused Beau to exhale. She stared down at her hands, at her scarred knuckles. She thought about what Nott said about fire. 

“I… yeah. I do. I couldn’t say it before. I didn’t wanna fuck things up like I always do. I didn’t want to fuck up this friendship, or you know, the Chaos Crew… or just the entire party by having a fucking crush. I was trying to just get over it.”

“Are you?”

Beau looked at Jester from the corner of her eye. Despite how sad she looked, it was hard to gauge anything else.

“Am I over it?”

Jester nodded.

Beau sighed. “Fuck, Jester. I don’t know. Sometimes I think I am and then you go and do something or you say something and I feel you creep back in again and I-”

Beau forced herself to stop. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe. This was agonizing. 

“Do you like me now?” Jester asked. 

Beau’s mind tried to go somewhere safe, to the beaches in Nicodranas, but even that memory betrayed her. She felt a familiar sting in her eyes and it made her feel like she was fifteen again and in love for the first time. It hurt then and it was hurting now. 

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Jester,” she said looking upwards at the darkness above, trying to keep the tears from falling.

“The truth, preferably. I don’t have any spells left but I’m trusting that you won’t lie.”

_Fuck!_ Beau swallowed and inhaled deeply. 

“I do, Jes. I like you now. That’s the fucking truth.”

A moment passed and Beau braced herself. It was so silent that for a second, she thought that Jester had left her on that balcony, just walked away. When Beau finally turned to look, all she saw was a shy smile smiling back at her.

“You really are a softie, huh, Beau?”

_What?_ “ _What?_ ” 

“I like you too,” Jester whispered. 

Beau quickly wiped the tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes away. “Excuse me, what the fuck do you mean, ‘ _you like me_ ’?”

Jester giggled this time. A bashful giggle but a giggle nonetheless. 

“I like you a lot, Beau. Like, super-duper a lot.”

Beau shook her head. _What was happening?_ “You like me?”

“You can use your knuckles if you want to know if I’m telling the truth,” Jester said nonchalantly. 

“Jester, I’m not going to _punch_ you.”

Jester smiled coyly. “Then you’ll just have to trust me.”

Beau looked around her surroundings, double-checking that the rail she was holding onto was real. This wasn’t a dream. She’d be fucking pissed if this was a dream. 

She turned back to Jester who was beaming at her. The tenseness left Beau and nervous laughter bubbled up before it turned into real laughter. Before long, the two of them were both laughing together, laughing and crying tears of relief.

When they recovered their breath, Beau cocked an eyebrow at Jester. 

“You know what this means, right? That I like you and you like me?”

Jester looked at her curiously.

Beau pinched herself for good measure before she moved into Jester’s space, tentatively placing a hand on Jester’s waist. 

“Oh…” Jester whispered. 

“Is this okay?” Beau asked.

“Mmhmm,” Jester managed, biting her lip.

Beau could see Jester’s tail flick nervously behind her. _Gods she was adorable_.

“Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?”

Jester just nodded. 

Beau finally leaned in. It was familiar, the act of kissing, but to be kissing Jester for the first time, she could feel the chills run down her body as their lips met. 

It was tender and hesitant at first, but it deepened. And then it continued until they were both breathless. 

“Holy fucking shit, Beau!” 

Beau chuckled. “Was that good for you?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? That was fucking amazing!”

Before Beau could get a word in, Jester pulled her back in and Beau felt her heart skip a beat. She could get used to this. 

When they parted for the second time, Jester giggled happily. 

“I’m glad you left the hot tub,” she said. “Or else this might not have happened.”

Beau didn’t want to think of that possibility. “Hey, next time, let’s play a real game, with teams, and you and I will team up against Nott and all those other losers.”

Jester cackled. “Beau, those losers are our _friends_! And not everything is a competition.”

Beau thought about it for a moment, relishing in the image of Nott losing. Then her mind refocused on the tiefling in her arms. _Fuck, maybe none of that mattered when she had Jester in her arms_.

“Fine, maybe not everything is a competition but if you tell any of the others I said that, I’m denying it,” Beau said before leading the way back into their bedroom.

“But Beau, what about honesty?”

Beau pulled Jester into the bed next to her, letting her get settled into her side. 

“I’ve been more honest tonight than I’ve been in two lifetimes. They don’t need to know shit!”

  
Jester laughed into Beau’s neck and Beau felt like she could melt right there. _Why had she been so afraid?_ Jester loved her. Jester had loved her before but now she liked her too and that was more than Beau could have ever imagined.


End file.
